My wife has a Mk2 Galaxy, 2.3 manual petrol, 73000 miles, which is driving her crazy due to a believed immobiliser issue. As follows:-

Put key in ignition, turn, all dash lights etc come on as normal, wait a couple of seconds and turn to start........normally it starts just fine....but then....sometimes it doesn't. Aaargh a an intermittent electrical type fault - nightmare!

On a random basis it just fails to start - key turns but no starter turns - the immobiliser light in the door flashes constantly (showing it has not read the key). Normally it just goes solid red and goes out when car starts. Sooo I have tried the spare key (no change still randomly does/doesn't work). New battery a few months ago - made no difference. Sometimes the car is fine for weeks, sometimes (this last few days) it has failed to start about 7 times.

Will eventually start - just turn car off, back on, back off for up to 10 minutes(eek!) until eventually the immobiliser stops flashing and it's off you go as normal.

Needless to say my wife is giving me grief about this, I am loathe to take it to the main dealer because I'm sure they will randomly change parts until they get lucky, and I'm not paying £95 an hour plus parts for them to experiment! Probably end up with a £1000 bill and no fix......that is my fear.

Sooo, can I disable the immobiliser - no one is going to want to nick our old Galaxy anyway? Has anyone any idea what could be causing this? Anyone with similar problems?

Help before my wife withdraws Valentines day treats.......;-)